It's been almost a year - but it's time to start up again...

Hi folks,
This past year, was an intentional pause on the Blog because we have been at the upstart of a new fabrication solution. We've all known that it will take a bit of time to have enough community participants to make a social media forum/blog work but we've never lost our vision in building and supporting one. With the release of Version 1.o of Fabrication for AutoCAD MEP at the beginning of Winter 2008-09 and the upcoming release of Version 2.0 in conjunction with the Autodesk release of AutoCAD MEP 2010, my sense is that it's the right time to renew our intentions to support a community of early fabrication adopters.

This forum will be Engineering and Fabrication contractor-specific and its focus will be the real and practical elements of fabricating with AutoCAD MEP and BIM methodologies.

I am looking forward to building a community of like-minded individauls and professionals who share our desire to search and discuss practical AutoCAD MEP and BIM solutions.

Dave

Drawing Structural Members in AutoCAD MEP

Posted by DaveQ on behalf of:
Toby S. Smith, PE, LEED AP
AutoCAD MEP Product ManagerAEC Engineering

Drawing Structural Members in AutoCAD MEP

In addition to all of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) functionality in AutoCAD MEP, there is also all of the functionality of AutoCAD Architecture. This includes typical architectural items such as walls, doors and windows and also several structural members (columns, beams, bar joists, etc).

The product includes Tool Palette tools to draw these items. Change your workspace to Architectural (or right-click on your current Tool Palette and select Architectural).

The tools can be pre-set with various structural member styles (several styles are available in the Styles directory in the Member Styles drawing or they can be created as needed). Pre-defined tools are also available in Content Browser. Open the Architecture Design Tool Catalog and select Structural from the navigation menu on the left. Select either Bar Joists or Members to access the catalogs (Members catalog is shown below).

For more information, search for Structural Member on the Index tab in Help.

If you don’t have the Architecture Design Tool Catalogs available in Content Browser, you may need to install the Architecture Content Packs. To do this, click on Start > Control > Add or Remove Programs, select AutoCAD MEP and click the Change/Remove button. Select the Add or Remove Features option and click Next when the dialog loads to get to the Configure Content Packs screen. Select the Architecture items as needed. Continue clicking Next to install the files.

Welcome Intro to AutoCAD MEP Webinar Series folks

I'd like to welcome AutoCAD MEP Webinar attendees to my blog, "Space and Elevation".

This Blog is an open discussion forum dedicated to mechanical engineers and hvac and piping contractors who design and fabricate using AutoCAD MEP or Revit MEP.

I received a great suggestion today from one of the attendees to open up a forum. His first name is Rob and he volunteered to help monitor the site. Thank god for Rob!

Please use the site to ask questions, discuss functionality challenges, share tips, tricks and shortcuts all related to using these two great platforms. From time to time I bet we'll even have real Autodesk MEP engineers and product managers, the guys building the products, visit to share their plans and to ask for suggestions.

The site will be moderated to insure that the discussion threads are kept at a professional level.

Dave

Link for Recorded Follow-up training Session #1

Hey everyone,
For those of you who missed Beth's follow-up session or for those of you who did attend and would like to review it one more time, you can download it from this url..

http://www.eccadcam.com/downloads/public/MEPfollowupJAN16-08.zip

DaveQ

First Follow-up Web training

Here's the time, date and content for Follow-up AutoCAD MEP Fabrication Training
When: Wednesday, January 16 from 3:00 - 4:00pm

To register and receive login details, please send email to dquigley@eccadcam.com

More on Label Styles

You can find a word document from Beth on Label Styles. Go to http://www.eccadcam.com/downloads/public/mep_training/

Follow-up training modules

General consensus for follow-up lessons

1. Creating templates
2. Review Setting up HVAC system definitions and routing preferences
3. Creating schedules
4. Creating 3D equipment libraries with smart connections
5. Tagging and Annotation set up

Also, in regard to the timeframe for these 1 hour training modules I received three requests we do the training from 3:00-4:00 pm. Unless, I hear from more than three of you that this is not the best time I will be making our future plans based on this timeframe.

I'm tentaively planning January 16th as the first of a series of follow-up web-based lessons. Please pencil in 3;00 - 4:00 on your schedules. I will include the lesson objectives tomorrow.

DaveQ